pain.001 (Payment Initiation 001) is the ISO 20022 XML message your ERP or accounting software sends to the bank to trigger a credit transfer. It replaced the old DTA and EZAG formats in Switzerland in 2022 and is now the only accepted format for payment file submissions to Swiss banks.
A pain.001 file can contain multiple payments in one submission — each transaction carries the debtor and creditor IBANs, amount, currency, and remittance reference. The internal XML structure groups payments under a <CstmrCdtTrfInitn> root, but most finance teams never need to touch the raw XML; their ERP generates it.
Key facts
- Full name:
CustomerCreditTransferInitiation - Swiss version: pain.001.001.09 (Swiss Payment Standards)
- Submitted by: corporate ERP / accounting systems to bank via eBanking or host-to-host channel
- Replaces: legacy DTA and EZAG formats (discontinued 2022)
- Related messages: pain.002 (status), camt.054 (booking confirmation)